Japain's secret dragons
by Rogercat
Summary: Newt gets a reason to meet up with his friends from New York and a few allies in England, to make a secret journey that will undercover a secret treasure from Japan...
1. Chapter 1

_**A New Home**_

Author's note: This story was begun before the trailer for The Crimes of Grindelwald revealed that Leta Lestrange and Credence are half-siblings through their father, so for the sake of less messed up family situations in this AU, Credence will be a second-generation Muggle-born to explain why Mary Lou seem to have known his biological mother to be a witch.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Newt landed on soft grass when he reached his destination. Oh, the joy of being out in the quiet countryside of Cornwall near the northern coast rather than the noisy streets of London. The best of all, was that there was fewer humans around if one did not count the local village a bit further down on the road. But the village was not where Newt would be this time, no he was set on a small house set a bit afar from the muggle village.

The cottage was in a classical style with white walls and thatched roof, sending out a sense of welcome even for those who simply passed by. The well-kept garden told of tender hands, apple trees were growing beside bushes with berries and the sweets scents of early summer could be hinted in the salty air from the sea. The meowing from a hungry cat came from the front of the garden, followed by a young child saying:

"Ma, look! I found the barn cat!"

Newt smiled at the sight of the child, a young dark-haired boy no older than perhaps six at the most, dressed in a dark blue sailor suit with white stripes, as he ran across the garden to find a woman in her late 40s, not quice dressed in the current fashion for the 1920s but of a slightly older style, which she matched with a large straw hat against the sun.

"Credence dear, take it easy or you will trip on the ground. Now go and see where your father is, he should be back from his fishing trip by now. If he got some catch in those fish traps of his, we will have fresh fish to lunch," she smiled at the boy, who immediately ran off to find his father.

"Good morning, mrs Midnight," Newt greeted in a slightly loud voice, so she would hear him come.

"Newt Scamander! How good to see you! I guess that you are here to check on the American little fellow you left here earlier in winter?" Elizabeth Midnight smiled at him at seeing who it was.

"Yes, exactly. I hope that things are well with Credence?"

"Oh yes, he is much loved by everyone in the family. We are forever grateful for that you came with him, given that my family sadly is haunted by difficulty in continuing the family line, or rather have more than one child per generation, despite not marrying close relatives like many of the Pure-blood families do. Thankfully Credence is in the right age to be the result of a surprise pregnancy that I and Erik kept hidden from our fellow Wizards around my 40th birthday."

Despite being a woman Elizabeth was the current Head of the House of Midnight, a British wizarding family of Half-blood status infamous among their fellow Wizards for rarely marrying someone from the Pure-blood families and instead preferring to marrying Muggle-borns or even Muggles at times as Elizabeth herself had gone, staying loyal to their family motto " _Mixed blood and Proud of it_ ". Her only child Richard had been six years below Newt at Hogwarts, and while Newt had not been close to Richard at school because of that age difference he still found the Midnight heir to be one of the few friends he had after being expelled.

"Where is Richard and Erik?"

"Erik is down at the beach to hopefully catch something fresh for lunch, he can not really escape from his humble background in Norway even after thirty years of living in England. And Richard is finishing the last part of a mission in Sweden."

Well, that explained why neither her husband or son were anywhere to be seen right now. At her offer, Newt sat down at the breakfast table in the kitchen while Elizabeth began to make tea.

"I...am glad that you could take in Credence despite it coming as a thunderbolt from the blue sky. As a bachelor without any permanent home unless you count in the Scamander Manor, I would be unable to give him a stable home even if I wanted to. And mom...would most likely mistake Credence as...something else," Newt admitted in a low voice.

With "Something else", Newt meant the more polite term of a young child being dumped at a wizarding home, often with a letter and other small proof of being born of wedlock. Since the WWI, there had been several scandals over unwed witches from Pure-blood families sneaking under the watchful eyes of mortalists and having a secret relationship, often ending in pregnancy unless they were quick to take portions that would prevent them from getting with child in the first case.

"Bah! As if those people have any right to complain, they should actually be happy for any grandchild their unwed daughters may give birth to, when it is so few Pure-blood bachelors left since the Great War thanks to many of them being foolish enough to underestimate those new weapons that Muggles have invented over the last two centuries! Besides, several of them could use some new blood unless they want the family name to actually die out. You who are so familiar with animals and beasts, should get what I mean, correct?"

Newt nodded in unease, inbreeding was a unspoken matter in the British Wizarding World but he had only needed to see on the family trees to know what fate may await many of the Pure-blood families in the future. They needed to open their eyes for the harsh truth of that their family name risked to die out unless they accepted new blood in the family from a Muggle-born or Half-blood because of the slowly growing difficulty in propagating their families. Most of those families would be lucky if they survived throughout the coming decades if their sons and daughters kept marrying spouses they already was related to in some degree. At least Theseus was happy married and a father of two children since his marriage in 1920, so Newt did not need to worry about having to be the one to continue the family line or being the direct heir as he had been until the birth of his oldest nephew.

"Ma! Pa is home!" Credence cheerfully called from the front door, followed by a older man, whose reddish hair caught in a long braid was starting to go grey, dressed in overall of blue cotton over an long sleeve work shirt and finishing off the look with a sturdy pair of rubber work boots, who was carrying a wicker basket with some fresh fish and a fishing net over one shoulder. Something in his well-worn clothes spoke of a humble upbringing, since they were layered and patched several times. But he still had strength in his body, as proved by his strong arms.

"My, are it not the local odd-ball to animal lover on visit!" Erik joked in good humour at seeing who the guest was, pushing up the large straw hat he used as protection against the sun. Out of habit Newt did not look anyone in the eye, but smiled shyly since the Midnight family was among the few people he felt comfortable around.

"I ... came to check on Credence. Was a bit worried about how he may be in a land so different from America where I found him...ow!" Newt gasped in surprise when Erik gave him a noticeable pat on the back with a little too much force

"Not as strange as I found Great Britain after leaving my native _Norge_ to marry my dear Elizabeth, and children have easier to adjust to a new home. He will forget soon enough if his old memories does not show up again."

"Mister Scamander! Look, Ma and Pa got me this just last week! They want me to study the various breasts in there and surprise older brother Rickard with what I have learnt when he comes back home from his mission in Sweden in a few weeks," Credence interrupted the adults. In his hands, a book with a very familiar title was shown:

 _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_

Newt was moved by the simple words. He also enjoyed to hear that Credence did not seem to dislike his older foster brother, despite that Rickard were already an adult on 24 years of age that would have made him 18 years older than Credence's supposed age and neither one being used to having a brother at the beginning, Rickard being the only child of his parents and Credence more used to his now forgotten adoptive sisters in New York. It was good news that Credence seemed to enjoy his current life better than his first even if he now was a de-aged child with no memories of the past. Then again, this was a new chance to give him the happy life he deserved.

"Come on, _gutt_ , let's set things up for your _mor_ in the kitchen so she can fix a nice fish with mashed potatoes for lunch later," Erik commented, making Credence following after him while not letting go of the book. For that, Newt and Elizabeth heard Erik give the boy a soft scolding.

A hour later, Newt bid them goodbye as he needed to return home to the Scamander Mansion and help his mother with the mother hippogriffs that had gotten their offsprings in the last few days.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Roughy at the same time, in the far distant land of Japan, a very serious crisis was happening. Not involving the Muggles, magic was well-known by the non-magical population since ancient times and most of them knew the local wizard or witch by face since they often took up the role of folk healer for poor people, even if they did not that it was actual magic that helped them.

But right now, it was becoming more and more serious in Hakkaido where one could find the dragon reservate for the most rare of the Japanese dragon breeds, the Silver Dragons.

The overwhelming cries from one of the nests echoed in the nearest area, sounding sorrowful and fearful on the same time. Those in change of guarding the dragon reservate, bowed in respect for the Japanese Minister of Magic, Hino Sakura, as she arrived there with two samurai guards for protection. The Muggle samurai families may not have the social class or power of former centuries anymore, but among the magical population they were still somewhat common thanks to adjusting to the changing times.

"How are the Queen?" she asked in a serious voice, looking around with her wand ready.

"It is not good, Hino-sama. She have searched for the attackers the past day and night after the first cry of distress from her young, even attempting to break out from the protective barrier around the reservate…" a female worker responded, her voice revealed her terror of punishment by death for this failure. Now, her murdered co-workers could not be blamed for failing to raise the alarm due to being hit with the Killing Curse, but the fact that intruders had managed to sneak into the dragon reservate and escape before capture, was unforgivable.

The first sign of something being wrong had been the been the sudden roar of fury, powerful enough to rip up trees with their roots from the earth in the most northern border of the reservate, quickly followed by heart wrenching cries of the Silver Queen where she had been found, two non-Japanese persons laying death on the ground due to not managing to flee from her in time. And as dragons often acted by instincts, especially mothers when their nests, eggs or offspring were threatened, this made it impossible to interrogate any captured prisoners.

"Was there any sign that could reveal the mastermind of this...horrible act?"

Another worker held up a small item to her, and in the light of the lamps it was revealed as a triangular necklace, with a straight vertical line, a circle surrounding it, and finally a triangle enclosing them both.

Only one person were known for it.

" _Gellert Grindelwald!_ He...he would dare to use…one of our oldest national treasures among our beasts...?! Against both the Wizard and Muggle worlds!?"

Time could not be wasted, not with this risk that showed why the Silver Dragons had been hidden away. Not just famed for their beauty, they could be used in far darker intentions as well.

"Send a messenger to Great Britain at once! Find the magizoologist Newton Scamander and tell him that this rescue mission needs his skills in magical beasts and the people who helped him to capture Grindelwald in New York last year! If Grindelwald manages to use this young Silver Dragon as a weapon, he will be much harder to defeat than what he already is!"

They could only hope that Newt Scamander indeed could help, or things could grow to catastrophe.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Author's note: The Midnight family are part of a longer series I wrote a few years ago in my native Swedish, and I wanted to re-use them again so more people could read about them. Elizabeth and Erik were not the main characters there, but rather a few descendants of them.

Erik is meant to be from Norway, so he is mixing some words from Norwegian language in when he speaks in English. The words he uses in this chapter is: gutt = boy, mor = mother and Norge = Norway

One of the most formal Japanese honorific suffix is -sama, used for people of a higher rank than oneself or divine, toward one's guests or customers, and sometimes toward people one greatly admires. I imagine that Japanese witches have a strong social status and can have important posts like a Minister of Magic


	2. Chapter 2

MACUSA, New York in America:

Tina Goldstein was a bit nervous. Or rather, almost everyone here in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was a bit quiet in both words and actions. The reason why? Percival Graves, _the real one_ she reminded herself, had returned to his office and work as Head of the department. She recalled him as a strict but fair boss, yet now it was hard to not miss the difference from how he had been in the past, before being beaten in a duel and held as a prisoner in his own home by Grindelwald.

Tina smiled a little in memory of the letter Newt Scamander had written back in a letter to her, when she had sent him words about how the escape of his magical beasts from his suitcase actually had been useful for the American aurors due to that Percival's home had been one of the houses destroyed by Credence in his Obscurial form, and thus the real Percival had been found:

 _Perhaps America needs a couple of similar events once in a while in order to find mysteries that they can not solve at first look? Just joking, miss Goldstein, the President was very firm in her orders that I should stay away from the US for the sake of America having some peace and quiet._

The biggest difference from before, was that Percival had lost his right arm and leg in the duel with Grindelwald, so he now had a prosthetic arm and leg. Another change was the beard he had grown out, perhaps to mark himself from being disguised by Grindelwald a second time.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

"Mr Graves, is that….a cat?"

Percival looked up from his paperwork at the question, a shocked wizard staring at something. A fluffy tail brushed his cheek a little.

"Two half-Kneazles, to be precise. A unexpected gift from Newton Scamander when he heard that I still had some trouble with nightmares, must have been his brother Theseus to pass that information on due to us being in contact as fellow Head aurors. Called them a set of emotional support animals, well trained since they were kittens and he even sent papers ahead to the president for permission to send the pair across the Atlantic. Newton even ensured that they would not have any unexpected litters of kittens in the future, I have enough with those two."

The black male cat yawned, where he just had woken up from a nap by using his owner's shoulders as a place to sleep despite that more than one person had gotten surprised at seeing the cat on Percival like that. The female white cat, however, was satisfied with purring loudly in his lap.

"Persephone, be kind and move, I need to reach that book over there and you are limiting how far I can reach over the desk. Hades, can you move too?"

The female cat jumped up on the desk, where she was joined by her mate, which then used a paw to pat on a small vial with a clear liquid inside.

"Right, my medicine to prevent any nervous breakdowns, thank you."

The medicine was easier to mask its taste, by adding it in some nice strong coffee with milk. In that very same moment as he emptied the cup, Tina entered the office.

"You called on me, Director?"

She showed no surprise at all when seeing the two cats, but then again she had been the one requested to to deliver them to Percival once they had arrived to New York, since she and her sister Queenie was the Americans Newt knew best. It was not like Jacob could have helped them because he was a No-Maj, she reminded herself. And Mr Graves actually looked better in this short-trimmed beard he had started to wear as a sign of his real identity than the ragged appearance he had worn at being found, it was a sign of how the trauma had changed him.

"Yes. The French Ministry of Magic is requesting help in expose a suspected smuggling league for the black market in Paris. There are suspicions that non-magic people may be involved, either voluntarily or without knowing what they actually do. Given that your sister is a natural Legilimens, she may be useful to... _distract_ those non-magical people without harming them."

Oh, Queenie would love to be useful since she knew that men tended to be charmed by her, not by magic but because she was that good-looking. Besides, Tina knew that her sister had started to meet up with Jacob again despite it being illegal here in the United States, but she did not have the heart to report it. Perhaps they could bring Jacob along, to give the happy couple a chance of being able to show themselves in public together without worrying to be exposed? He could perhaps stay in a hotel, or at least in the non-magical part of Paris, while they did their mission.

"When can we leave?"

He sent over a set of boat tickets across the desk to her.

"Two days. I have already booked a cabin on a ship going directly to France, that will leave New York Harbor in the morning, so you have to get up early. It was only five cabins with three beds left when I booked, so you will have to excuse that."

Not that Tina minded, that would help getting Jacob along to France. A loud, rather deep meow came from the desk again, Hades keeping himself busy with trying to push off some papers down on the floor.

"Ah, right. About that Obscurus case this past winter...I looked up the origins of young Credence while recovering from the time with Grindelwald, and found out that he was born in 1901. Before he was adopted by that unpleasant Barebone woman, he was in the care of a non-magical orphanage. The staff there revealed that his birth mother actually was a freshly arrived immigrant to the US, but that she sadly died from complications in a premature labour after arriving here to New York with a ship from Spain. Mary Lou Barebone was one of the two unrelated women who rushed her to a midwife who worked at the orphanage, since that was among the closest places from the harbour when the birth started too early. To my great luck, there was still some of her personal belongings left at the orphanage that Mary Lou refused to take along when she adopted the boy a few months after his birth. Thanks to that, I got a confirmation on her identity with a little help from the Spanish Ministry of Magic; _Idonia Drina_ , a Spanish witch who was born from non-magical parents in a poor family around 1880, and was placed in a smaller witch school masked as a convent when two of its nuns noticed that she showed signs of magic, an act of charity that helped the family because there were several siblings outside Idonia and they had worried about not being able to afford dowries to all the four daughters. It seems that she had a romance with a No-Maj in 1900, but that he was killed by a rival suitor over her hand in marriage, someone who was a wizard and thought himself better suited to wed her. Based on what Í could tell from her diary, the move here to America was a act of desperation when she realized that she was pregnant without being married or at least engaged, hoping to be able to claim herself as a very young widow when arriving here."

There even was a photo of a young, dark-haired woman in a white blouse, her hair caught in a long braid that even had been set up in a braided bun on the back of her head. Tina could see some resemblance to Credence as he had been looking in his adult years.

"And….her son? Why did we never find out that he possibly was magical?" she asked.

"I asked our healers, and they said that he likely had been affected by her grief while in the womb, there was witnesses on the ship that also told the midwife after her death that she did not seem to be in the best of health during her blessed state. A less than ideal adopted mother also weakened his magic at first, because he must have been punished for small magic that he ended up scared of, linking it to something he feared."

A failure that was going to haunt the MACUSA, a life that could have become so different if they only had tried to be pay more attention in families like that. A harsh lesson, especially in how Grindelwald had almost managed to convince Credence that he could give the troubled young man a better life.

"It feels even worse in that he was able to escape while being transported to Europe for trial last week…" he admitted, that situation was going to make them look weak in the eyes of others.

"A very dangerous wizard, indeed. I dread what might happen if his followers get bigger in numbers, not just in Europe, but in the rest of the world as well. Japan sent a message just before his escape that they would add more defenses around their islands, just to try and keep unwanted people from entering. But at least Mr Scamander proved that Grindelwald can be captured, even if it was by the use of a magical beast, we just need to think out of the box when dealing with him," Percival agreed.

There was nothing else to talk about, so Tina was allowed to go.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Just after that miss Goldstein had left, Percival intended to have some lunch down in the dining area since he needed a break from the paper work anyway.

Only that when he opened the door, something was dangerously close to almost stabbing him in the eye. Only the old instinct to act quickly saved him, and instead the item drilled itself deep into the wood on the door as he was quick enough to close it. Two upset hisses behind him, revealed that Hades and Persephone had been startled as well.

"Mr Graves?!"

This time, as he carefully opened the door again, it was the other miss Goldstein who came running to see if something had happened to him.

"A Japanese kanzashi?" Percival wondered in surprise at seeing the hair ornament in the shape of a golden hairpin. A check with his ward, confirmed that the item had been sent by magic, all the way from Japan actually, in a group meant for all the Ministries of Magic across the world. That kind of long-distance magic was rare, and only used in emergency situations, based on the piece of parchment that had been fasted to the top end. Yet the hairpin removed itself out of the wood on the door and was once again sent flying in the air on its own, aiming to try and find the person who would have the message.

"A message for the President?" Queenie asked nervously.

"No, the letter was addressed to _**Newton Scamander.**_ For whatever reason, it seems like Japan needs his help, most likely related to a magical beast or something."

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Credit to the changes of the real Percival Graves goes to fellow DA artist and writer Yinyangswings.

Idonia is a Spanish first name of Latin origin and its meaning is 'of good disposition', while Drina is a Spanish surname that means Helper and defender of mankind. I thought that given how Credence looks like in the movies, I could try with a south-European origin for him.

As for the idea of a smaller magical school being masked as a convent for witches or a monastery for wizards, I thought that could be a way to hide magical children in strongly Catholic countries where the Church have a strong part in everyday life, and not all magical students may want to travel abroad to study at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic that takes many of its students from France, as well as large numbers from Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium. The long history of witch trials and the Spanish Inquisition likely also played a role in hiding away magical children under the disguise of charity.


	3. Chapter 3

In London, Newt kept himself busy with his magical beasts. Now when he had managed to get a apartment in which he could live alone and not at the Scamander Manor with his parents, he felt a little more confident in keeping them safe. Of course he had hired a assistant to take care of the animals if he needed to leave the apartment for a longer time.

But something felt like it was missing. Lately, Newt had started to feel lonely in a very different manner from before. The events in New York had changed something for him. The Goldstein sisters and Jacob had not found him annoying. Odd, no doubt, but they had still helped him with finding and recapture all the missing beasts from the suitcase.

"I would like to meet them again at some point, without all the drama of last time…"

Suddenly he heard a window being broken in the front of the apartment. A thief?

~X~X~X~X~X~X

When Newt came out in the living room, something had buried itself deep into the opposite wall. A closer look revealed it to be a Japanese kanzashi, a type of hairpin. And what was more, there was a letter with his name on.

"From the Ministry of Magic in Japan?" Newt wondered in surprise at seeing the wax seal, a opened war fan, showing that it indeed was from that country. One of his life-long dreams was to visit Japan one day, but they was very strict with non-Japanese people entering due to a lot of scandals in the past involving their famous Silver Dragons, related to the unpleasantness of the black market.

On the other hand, it reminded him of the rumours he had heard earlier in spring. That one of the oldest living Silver Dragons may not have long left in this world. Did Japan want his skills with magical beasts to help making its last days as much comfortable as possible?

 _Dear Mister Scamander_

 _By now, the news of Grindewald escaping from the MACUSA must have reached you as well._

 _Unfortunately this evening we found out that some of his followers managed to find and break into one of our most protected places in Japan, stealing one of our most secret treasures. While it is not a weapon originally, it would easy become one if Grindewald manages to break the code to change its nature. Or that he plans to use it to get money in illegal manners by selling this treasure on the black market._

 _With this letter, I send a magical compass inside the kanzashi that will glow red when you are very close to the treasure. Be careful with magic when you find it, for spells spoken in another language than Japanese risks to make a situation worse._

 _Hino Sakura, Minister of Magic_

Newt opened the compass to see something strange inside. A long white claw, alongside a thin item that almost seemed transparent when he held it up between his fingers for a closer look. Then it shined in a silvery manner, and the unspoken part of the letter was revealed for him.

"And this is one of the reasons to why I find people more dangerous than the magical beasts they do not understand!" Newt thought in horror when he realized that it was a piece of a scale, the overlapping kin of dragons.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Rushing up the stairs to his bedroom, Newt threw together some clothing and other necessary things he always had in his suitcase when traveling. He also needed to choose which ones among the magical beasts downstairs that could be taken along, an entire zoo of them risked to cause a situation similar to what had happened in New York last year, and he was already in enough trouble with the Ministry of Magic here in Great Britain for that event.

Then a post owl arrived, pretty late for this time in the evening, knocking with one claw on the window to be let inside.

"You are not one of Theseus' family owls, I know most of them after all the family dinner invitations in his home over the past years…"

It was not a letter. A postcard, stamped in Paris only a day earlier. From someone he had exchanged letters over the past six months.

 _Dear Newt._

 _Queenie and I have been given a mission to deal with a smuggling league in the black market in Paris, because it is believed to be have international ties. I have a strong feeling that a magical beasts or two might be among the illegal goods to buy there on the black market, so could you try to come over here and help out, with your skills?_

 _With love_

 _Tina Goldstein_

Well, that could give him a starting point to look for the secret treasure that had been stolen from Japan. Besides, Newt had hoped to meet Tina and the others again at some point.

"I need a way to travel to Paris without being found out…"

It was so stupid and annoying, that the Ministry had forbidden him from travel abroad because of what had happened in New York! On the other hand, seeing that it _was_ illegal to bring in magical beasts without a license, they had been somewhat justified despite that Newt wished to save more of the endangered beasts that may go extinct soon within a few decades or even a few years.

So, how to travel to the French capital without being found out by his brother or the Ministry? Then Newt recalled another letter he had gotten that very morning, which should still be in the living room.

And there it was, the letter from Richard Midnight, with a noticeable detail inside;

 _Greetings to you, Newt_

 _Hope that you are fine after what you found in New York (it was in the newspaper, you know!), and all the magical beasts you are caring for._

 _My parents and adopted brother have talked about traveling to Paris for a few days now over summer, and of course, I had to tell them of my beloved fiancée and her idea to start a travel company with an airship for magical people, something which are common even among the Muggles those days. She have even planned and built the whole ship by herself, shall you know! It clearly would be a more pleasant journey for families with young children than having to travel long-distance by brooms, even if a portkey is the fastest way to travel._

 _With hope of seeing you soon_

 _Richard Midnight_

That could be a way to arrive to Paris without being seen, and meet with the Goldstein sisters there. And Newt knew which magical beasts to being along on this journey, some of them simply could not be left in the hands of his assistant because they were too used to him handing them.


End file.
